Hezbollah Chief Leads Huge Protest

In a rare public appearance, the leader of the militant Hezbollah group exhorted hundreds of thousands of supporters today to keep up the campaign against an anti-Islam video that has unleashed deadly violence and anger at the US across the Muslim world. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah spoke for about 15 minutes in Beirut before a rapturous, peaceful crowd estimated by police at about 500,000, many with headbands of green and yellow—the colors of Hezbollah—and the words "at your service God's prophet" written on them.

"The world should know that our anger is not a passing thing," said Nasrallah, who rarely speaks in public for fear of Israeli assassination. "This is the start of a serious campaign that must continue all over the Muslim world in defense of the prophet of God." He warned of serious repercussions if the US does not ban the film and have it removed from the Internet. "As long as there's blood in us, we will not remain silent over insults against our prophet," he said. (More Hezbollah stories.)